Posted: September 8th, 2022

Criminal homework help
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The response must be 250 words and use at least 2 scholarly citation(s) in APA format. Any sources cited must have been published within the last five years. Acceptable sources include texts, articles, presentations, the Bible, blogs, videos, etc.

Textbook: Raines, S. (2020). Conflict Management for Managers: Resolving Workplace, Client, and Policy Disputes (2nd ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 9781538119938

.One of the most stressful jobs in the world is being a police officer. Officers see and hear about terrible things, which can cause mental problems like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression. When compared to other jobs, they have some of the highest rates of death and illness. Officers see traumatic things and have unpredictable work schedules, which can make them sleepless, gain or lose weight, have stomach problems, or be too alert. This review of the literature looks at the main causes of trauma and stress among police officers.

Stress

There are two things that cause stress for officers: their jobs and their jobs as a whole. Operational stress is caused by things that happen on the job itself. The most stressful things about being a police officer are killing someone in the line of duty, seeing a fellow officer die, or firing a gun at someone (Violanti & Aron, 1995). Officers also go through other kinds of trauma that, if not treated, can lead to problems with their mental health. Most of the stress that officers feel comes from other people in the organization. Shift work has been found to cause officers the most stress. It gets in the way of their family and social lives and makes it hard for them to sleep. Other things that cause stress in the organization are not getting enough help, having a lot of work to do, having problems with supervisors, and having to do things quickly (Violanti & Aron, 1995).

Police Culture

Even though officers go through a lot of trauma and stress, many of them don’t ask for help. This is because of the way people in the police profession work. When most police officers were white men, they taught values that taught people to be strong, brave, and willing to sacrifice. In a job where men are the majority, police work is dominated by masculinity. Officers didn’t talk openly about mental health issues because they didn’t want to look weak. Officers are trained to help each other out when things get dangerous. Officers with mental health problems are sometimes shunned by their fellow officers because they hurt the image of what it means to be a police officer (Soomro & Yanos, 2018).

Stigma

Once it is known that an officer has problems with their mental health, they are given a bad name. Stigma is directly linked to the way police work. The literature review found that stigma comes from three different places. Public stigma is when the general public agrees with a stereotype about a stigmatized group. People with mental health problems have almost as much of a bad name as people with AIDS/HIV. The public gives the police a social identity, and if an officer doesn’t fit that image, it can lead to discrimination, loss of status, and missed chances (Bell & Eski, 2015).

Officers often feel bad about themselves because of the way the public views them. It means that the officer has to believe the stereotype that the public has made up. When officers don’t meet the standard, they start to feel like they’re not good enough. That makes a person lose self-confidence and self-esteem (White, et al., 2015). Officers also face structural stigma, which is caused by the way an institution treats a certain group. A police officer’s mental health is greatly affected by how much support they get from their department. The policies that are put in place may not be done on purpose, but if they make it seem like officers could lose their jobs or be singled out, less officers will be willing to come forward. Some officers still don’t trust departments that work to improve mental health because they see them as “window dressing” (Bikos, 2020).

Coping Mechanisms

Police officers have ways to deal with trauma and stress. Two different coping strategies have been identified. Adaptive coping is making healthy choices, like getting in shape, getting help from family and friends, or going to counseling. But most officers use bad ways to deal with stress, like drinking and using drugs. Because the police culture is dominated by men, these strategies don’t work (Gutschmidt & Vera, 2022)

References

Bell, S. & Eski, Y. (2015). ‘Break a leg – It’s all in the mind’: Police officers’ attitudes towards colleagues with mental health issues. Policing: An International Journal, 10(2), 95-101.

Bikos, L.J. (2020). “It’s all window dressing:” Canadian police officers’ perceptions of mental health stigma in their workplace. Policing: An International Journal, 44(1), 63-76.

Gutschmidt, D. & Vera, A. (2022). Organizational culture, stress, and coping strategies in the police: an empirical investigation. Police Practice Research, 23(5), 507-522.

Soomro, S. & Yanos, P.T. (2018). Predictors of mental health stigma among police officers” the role of trauma and PTSD. Society for Police and Criminal Psychology, 1-9.

Violanti, J.M. & Aron, F. (1995). Police stressors: Variations in perception among police officers. Journal of Criminal Justice, 23(3), 287-294.

White, A.K., Shrader, G., & Chamberlain, J. (2015). Perceptions of law enforcement officers in seeking mental health treatment in a right-to-work state. Journal of Police Criminal Psychology, 31(1), 141-154.

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